The pole vault is a demanding athletic event requiring a combination of sprinting, jumping, and gymnastics. In the course of engaging in a pole vault, a vaulter athlete initially sprints down a runway carrying a suitable pole, with an objective of arriving at the vault takeoff box with maximum attainable speed. Once the takeoff box is reached, the vaulter athlete emplaces or “plants” the vault pole into the takeoff box, and immediately thereafter executes a running-jump that causes the vaulter athlete to become airborne and to be thrust upwardly. Next, the vaulter's momentum causes the pole to commence bending, whereupon the vaulter athlete and vaulting pole synchronously rotate about the takeoff box.
As will be appreciated by those skilled in the vaulting art, during the vaulter athlete's sprint down the runway, subsequent plant of the vaulting pole in the takeoff box, and consequent upward thrust, the initial kinetic energy generated during the vaulter athlete's run-up to the takeoff box is transformed into potential energy, which is ultimately manifest as the height reached by the vaulter athlete.
It will be understood that, as the vaulting pole bends and then recoils, the vaulter athlete is caused to rotate about the shoulders, and then preferably pull up on the vaulting pole in order to be thrust to a maximum height with the goal of passing over the crossbar with the vaulter's feet leading this ascent. While the peak height achieved by the vaulter athlete is attributable primarily to the kinetic energy engendered during the run-up, there are substantial energy losses that unavoidably occur during the pole plant and vaulter athlete's takeoff.
Vaulting poles are structured and manufactured for the purpose of propelling a vaulter athlete over a fixed elevated horizontal crossbar during a pole vault sports competition. The physical characteristics of a vaulting pole are crucial in order that a vaulter athlete may obtain maximum vaulting height. Interestingly, the International Amateur Athletic Federation has no particular rules pertaining to, or restrictions of, such vault pole characteristics as pole length, vault pole materials of construction, or a vault pole's energy storage capacity.
It is well known in the art that vaulting poles are manufactured substantially in a linear configuration from various lightweight materials that progressed from bamboo to aluminum to fiberglass, carbon fiber, and plastics—and composites thereof. Prior art attempts to improve athletes' ability to achieve higher pole vaults have heretofore focused on modifying vaulting pole materials of construction and methods of pole manufacture. For example, materials of construction such as fiberglass and carbon fiber composites are commonly chosen materials that are typically arranged in a plurality of layers that constitute popular contemporary vaulting poles.
During a pole vault competition, a vaulting pole must afford the ability to absorb all of a vaulter athlete's energy manifest while the vaulting pole is being caused to bend—in the course of a vaulter athlete proceeding apace down the runway and then planting the remote edge of the vaulting pole into the vault box. The vaulting pole should ideally return substantially all of this energy while it is being caused to resume its straight or linear configuration—as the vaulter athlete is propelled upwardly toward the pole vault crossbar. Contemporary vaulting poles are designed not only to waste minimal energy while bending, i.e., to convert maximum kinetic energy into potential energy during the vault, but also are designed to be structured from components having an especially advantageous strength-to-weight ratio.
As is also known in the pole vaulting art, heightened vaults may be achieved by vaulter athletes running apace during the approach down the runway to the vaulting pit, thereby engendering substantial kinetic energy. As is common in the art, vaulters seek to maximize accumulation of kinetic energy by regularly participating in sprint training to increase runway speed. Coaches strive to maximize vaulters' ability to marshal kinetic energy by continuing to seek opportunities to reduce vaulting pole weight, and/or by striving to match vaulting pole attributes with a vaulter athlete's strength and interdependent physical characteristics. Besides judicious selection of materials of construction and layered configuration thereof, and proper hand grip, weight rating, “Flex Number”—as measured by the tendency of a pole to bend or flex under load, with a more flexible pole having a higher Flex Number, and pole weight, vaulting pole improvements known in the art have also invoked a “sail piece” design that tends to provide loop strength as well as to alter a vaulting pole's bending moment by incorporating a rigid portion therewithin. It will be appreciated that vaulting poles common in the art have been designed for specific vaulter athlete weight classes in order to achieve optimal vault pole bending, which is, in turn, is functionally related to maximum attainable height above the pole vault crossbar. It will, of course, be understood by those skilled in the art that particular pole vault techniques invoked by a vaulter athlete also factor into the maximum attainable height equation.
The physical characteristics of the pole are an important factor in a attaining optimal pole vaulting performance. International Amateur Athletic Federation rules do not place any restriction on vault pole length, materials of construction, or inherent vault pole energy storage capacity. The majority of vault poles are manufactured on tapered mandrels. It appears that most world-class male pole vaulters rely upon fibreglass or carbon fibre poles that are 5.00±5.20 m long. These vault poles have been observed to withstand bending of more than 120° without breaking, and have been observed to store an amount of elastic strain energy equivalent to about one half of an athlete's run-up kinetic energy.
It appears that, in spite of investigations and experimentation involving pole vaulting attributes and consequent performance, the various associated qualitative and quantitative relationships are still not well understood. These underlying relationships include such factors as athletes' speed and strength—and relationship therebetween, vaulting pole characteristics, and techniques invoked by athletes during pole vaulting. Implicated in this analysis of underlying pole vaulting principles are such factors and considerations as the functional relationship between takeoff angle and takeoff velocity, and the minimization of energy losses associated with vault pole plant and subsequent takeoff.
It should be clear to those skilled in the art that the plethora of vaulting techniques, in conjunction with athletes' selection of vaulting poles, affects the efficiency of converting kinetic energy to potential energy when the vaulting pole is planted. Then, as the vaulting pole is caused to bend, kinetic energy is absorbed akin to compressing a spring. The vaulter athlete invokes potential energy stored in the vaulting pole to urge the vaulter's body to be raised above the crossbar. Whether the highest point achieved during the vault traverses the crossbar is known in the vault art to be a function of the percentage of the pole's kinetic energy that has been converted into potential energy.
Notwithstanding these developments and refinements in the pole vaulting art, there appears to be no apparatus which has considered constructing a vaulting pole with a built-in alignment deviation. It has been found to be advantageous for a vaulter athlete to invoke a vaulting pole apparatus that inherently affords several benefits attributable to the presence of a longitudinal axis alignment deviation contemplated by the present invention. Accordingly, these limitations and disadvantages of the prior art are overcome with embodiments of the present invention, wherein a vaulting pole is constructed with an alignment deviation which provides vaulter athletes prerequisite apparatus for achieving higher pole vault heights than heretofore achieved. It has been found that embodiments of the present invention simultaneously enable vaulter athletes to benefit from optimal ergonomic conditions which tend to both maximize attainable pole vault height and to minimize injury to vaulters' wrists and implicated bones, joints, and related tissue.
Heretofore unknown in the prior art, the present invention incorporates an angular deviation away from a vaulting pole's lengthwise dimension for increasing the vaulting pole plant angle and for providing an inherently ergonomic hand grip throughout a pole vault. Accordingly, it should be understood that embodiments of the present invention may be constructed from virtually any material or combination of materials that are lightweight, that waste minimal energy during bending and recovery, and that afford an advantageous strength-to-weight ratio.